Who are you? What all makes a unique you? If your friends and peers are able to look up to you, recognize you and give prominence to you, then you have made up yourself something special. And this special is what your identity is. Same is the thing with a brand’s identity – brand identity.
Cutting to the chase, the brand identity is something that a company builds up its features, characteristics and promises or proposals in a unique way that are perceived with attention by the target audience or buyers. A brand, which can be a company or product usually, should be noticeable to the audience and build loyalty. Creating a differentiation and cultivating a familiarity among the consumers is what makes a brand identity. It is not just the name or a logo, but includes lot more of elements and factors. For instance, a particular colour that has been consistently in association with a brand’s designing. Also, the taglines, certain logos, etc.
Simply saying, if you are registered among your office group as a person with good dressing choice or for those geeky eye glasses collection, that’s it, this makes your identity. A company too seeks to cement its identity in consumers’ brains with distinct features.
Remember, your brand identity is the face and fate of your business. So, never let it face a chance as it can lead to tarnishing your firm.
Here are some insights that can help you craft a great brand identity. At least a flawless one.
Ask yourself “What’s our mission? What are our principles?”
The most important thing that connects your brand to the buyers is your mission. The values that you abide by. The vision your clearly have towards reaching your goals. Put simple, have a clear cut answer to “Why you started this business or product?”
Next understand your peers and competitors
Once you entered the world of competition, position your brand in the line and keep knocking it up towards number one. In the process refine your principles and keep up with your values. This makes your brand get perceived by the audience.
Building up the look and feel of your brand identity
The next priority to be given following the vision and mission is the designing part of your brand. Identify and finalise your logo. Choose the font style, use great colour combinations, play the gradient. There comes the graphics. The graphic designing plays crucial role in ballooning your brand identity.
If your brand is any product, hone the packaging and labeling section. If it is a company, discipline your staff. For instance, if you present your brand’s identity to the audience and consumers with a vast hype and if your customer services are bad, thus, your efforts go in vain. So, don’t leave your brand’s identity to the chance.
So, what elements you need to look into for designing the best brand identity?
Here come the best few…
- Typography
Do you remember our childhood favourite drink coca cola? Now that, you just have seen the drink’s name in a weird font style, right? That’s what made its brand identity – it special cursive script (which runs in your mind now). So, we mean, selecting the font style that best fits your product and should not be leaving the audience or consumers’ mind any time soon is the key.
- Choice of colours
Out of the hundreds of shades and tens and tens of popular colours, let us discuss the basic hues and their meaning straight away. Understand their context and match your brand’s preferences to the colours you are going to choose.
If you want your brand to be perceived by the audiences as
- Exciting and youthful – Choose Red (That is why most of the television channel logos go for red)
- Nature and money – Choose Green (Like as in investment firms or agricultural based products)
- Trust and truth – Choose Blue (News channels for instance)
- Luxury or Royalty – Choose Pink or Purple (Women related brands or products)
Other than these basic hues of the colour palette, some brands choose Gold or Silver that add sophisticated and a modern look to their identity. For instance, few mobile brands.
- Shapes and size of Logo
Not that you get a vast identity if your logo design is big. Relating to your brand’s features and products, select the form in which you require your brand identity to be. Make a point that your logo should be stylish yet classic but not trendy. Since, trends fade away with time. Also, the logo should be catchy and interesting which is to be occupied in the brains of the consumers.
Note that a simple small apple logo is now standing as a major status identity for many!
- Website or Physical space
If yours is an e-commerce platform or any digital marketing area that mostly relies interacting with consumers and audience online, make a point that your webpages and website are clutter free, easy-to- navigate, and most importantly the look and feel aspect is at its best.
If you have a physical space to show your brand’s identity, show up with your ambience, interiors and the staffers.
- Business cards
Yes, the next most important things in shortest form. You need to spread your brand’s name and identity far more than it is before. So, you also need to be professional and pessimistic. Your business card represent you (your brand) in simple. Also, it connects your brand to the new set of people. Keep your card simple yet ordered. Your brands logo, your name and details including the contact number are just enough.
- Packaging of the products
A well-furnished product of great quality in a poor package always leaves a tarnished image of the brand in customers’ mind. Be it a retail product or e-retail purchase, the outside packaging of your brilliant and beautiful brain-child must be a ‘wow’.
These basic things of building a brand identity can help you cement your brand’s place in the ocean of competitors and make is easily recognized with the audience and users.
